


Home Again, Home Again

by iamfitzwilliamdarcy



Series: 'Til The Love Runs Out [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Poe Solo AU, Poe is Han and Leia's other son AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-28
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-16 19:22:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5837878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamfitzwilliamdarcy/pseuds/iamfitzwilliamdarcy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poe comes home. He always does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home Again, Home Again

Poe has to get home. He knows that, but what he doesn’t know is exactly where he has to get home to. Or where he is for that matter.

His ship—the Tie-Fighter he’d stolen with Finn—had crashed landed, but Poe was a little unclear on what had happened next. He’s looked, but there’s no ship, no Finn around. Nothing but sand for miles and miles.

He figures he was ejected somehow. He hates to think that Finn might be dead so soon after getting away from the First Order, so he doesn’t think about it. Finn could have gotten away after all, for all Poe knows.

He thinks about getting away from here instead. All he can see is sand, and his body aches all over, but he’s wired and ready to go, so he picks himself up, chooses a direction, and starts walking.

It’s a long journey, he thinks, or long enough, but he stumbles across civilization finally. Resists the urge to drown himself in water and drinks it steadily instead (remembers the time he and Ben were little and his dad tells you can make yourself sick drinking too much water at once after not having any for a while; he wonders where Han picked that up from). 

Once he’s taken care of himself, staving off dehydration and starvation, he tracks down a comlink. He wants to sleep, put this off for another day, but the Resistance would be waiting to here from him. 

Pava answers, and he relaxes a little, at her familiar voice. He barely has time to greet her before she lets out a little gasp and says she’ll get the general. There’s silence, and a moment later, the General’s voice comes through. 

“Poe?” she asks, and her voice is tight, controlled even in her worry (and she shouldn’t worry, he thinks, he’s been on more dangerous missions before, checked in later than this, had closer calls, but he guesses that’s a mother’s prerogative). 

“Mom,” he says; he’s still on mission and meant to call her General, but it just slipped out. 

Sometimes keeping work life and family life separate doesn’t work that well. Not when you work for your mother, at least. He sags against his chair, though, feeling calmer. 

She sounds relieved, though, asks what kept him, and he explains as best he can. He hesitates, not sure he wants to tell her about Ben just yet, but she notices.

“What else?” she says.

Poe pauses again, fidgets a moment, then says, “Can I tell you when I get back?”

It’s her turn to be quiet, turning over the question, wondering what it means, but she says, “Yes,” and then, “Can you get home?”

“Yeah,” he says, grinning. “I can. Just tell me where to.” 

She tells him which base she’s at, and he buys a ship off a guy. It’s a little shady of a deal, but he wants to get out of her and fast. Leia told him to get off-planet instead of searching for BB-8, and he hates to leave his little droid behind, but orders are orders even when (maybe especially when) they come from your mom.

Besides, he thinks, taking off, she’s probably right and BB-8 is far away from here. They’ll find him (and the map to Uncle Luke), somewhere. They just have to regroup. 

He doesn’t wait until they’re in private to run to Leia and meet her in a hug. It’s been a long few days, and he hadn’t realized how much he missed her until then. She feels small in his arms, but she’s strong and sturdy as she’s always been. She squeezes him back (and he wonders what it’s like to have your child in your arms who was once so small now tower over you), and he realizes she’s been worried about him. 

“I’m fine,” he tells her, and steps back.

“Of course you are,” she says with a smile, reaches up to pat his cheek. She’s all business again in a minute, though. “What else do I need to know?”

Poe doesn’t say anything right away, and she nods, like she understands, and leads him back to her quarters. “So,” she says, eyes boring into him, concerned but always in control.

He takes a deep breath, lets it out again, and then says, quickly, “I saw him, Mom. Ben. I saw him.”

She freezes a moment, eyes hardening. “Did he do that to your face?” she asks, reaching towards him.

He puts his own hand up, but shakes his head. “Not directly, at least,” he says. 

He lets her fuss over him, clean his wounds while he tells her the details he’d left out over the com, and he can’t decide if he feels like a kid again or just old. She doesn’t react much to the news about Ben, but they’re connected in this sorrow, and it’s nice to have someone to share that with. 

When he’s done, she asks him to tell her about the Stormtrooper who’d defected, and he does, talking gladly about Finn and his friendliness and enthusiasm and courage.

“How brave,” Leia says, pulling back, finished with his injuries. Then, “I forget their human sometimes, behind that mask.”

“I think that’s the point,” Poe says, thinking about Ben and his mask. Does Ben use it to dehumanize himself, Poe wonders, or just to hide. 

He knows she knows that that’s the point, of course. She’s been doing this a lot longer than he has. But she doesn’t say anything, just gives him a smile, a genuine one even if it’s small and tinged with sadness. 

“I’m glad you made it home,” she tells him.

Poe grins back. “I always do.”


End file.
